Checking Your Skin Health-Part 2- Acne Rosacea

This is a continuation of our 5 part series on Checking Your Skin Health and moving forward in treating common skin issues. If you missed Part 1, you can learn more by clicking here.

Condition:

Acne Rosacea is a common form of adult acne that occurs most often in fair-skinned people over the age of 30. The condition often begins with redness in the center of your face. The redness gradually becomes more persisitent. “Broken” or dilated blood vessels known as telangiectasia appear, as well as small, red acne-like papules and pustules.

Unfortunately, no one has determined exactly what causes rosacea. Try to avoid the triggers that you know flush your skin. These can be things such as alcohol, spicy foods, hot beverages, cheese, vanilla, chocolate or others.

Oral or topical antibiotics usually help the inflammation (the papules and pustules). The most commonly used antibiotics are the tetracycline class (tetracycline, doxycycline or monocycline). Creams with metronidazole or sulfa-based antibiotics can work wonders. If redness persists, lasers or pulsed light can remove the blood vessels.

Pulsed light devices deliver energy to target and destroy vascular and pigmented lesions associated with spider veins, facial vesssels, rosacea, sun damage, age spots from hands, legs, chest, arms and face. Using the principle of selective photothermolysis, these treatments target different chromophores in the skin, which selectively absorb the laser or light energy as heat and yield the desired response.

If you are interested in learning more about these treatments or scheduling a consultation, please contact our office at 303-761-7797.